McGuinness in the points

Published:09:36Thursday 15 September 2011

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JOHN McGuinness made his return to the Mezteler National Superstock 1000cc Championship at Donnington Park at the weekend and it proved to be a solid return for the Morecambe ace as he secured a 12th placed finish.

The Padgetts Honda rider overcame a difficult first lap to move up the field to score points for the sixth time this season and maintain his position in the top 12 of the Championship.

The weekend started steadily for John with 15th in the opening qualifying session but he took more than half a second off his time in the second and final session and he jumped up the order to 12th place.

Subsequently, he started the 15-lap race from the third row of the grid and with it being the last race on Sunday’s schedule, it was 5.35pm when it finally got underway.

It soon proved to be a tough race for everyone and the Morecambe Missile’s race was made more difficult by a sluggish start seeing him end the first lap back in 15th place.

The pace car came out a couple of times with McGuinness first finding himself shuffled back further to 17th before more incidents allowed him to jump forward up the order further still and his hard work and effort was rewarded with 12th place and four points at the chequered flag.

The Isle of Man TT legend’s next meeting sees him make a return to the public roads with his annual visit to Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough where he’ll be competing once more in the International Gold Cup races. The meeting is this weekend, September 17 and 18.